Hinges of the type indicated above have long been known; they are for example described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,709 and have long been marketed under the trademark “INGOL”.
The known hinges are used to support doors of refrigerators of small or medium size but have not up to now been used for large dimension refrigerator doors, i.e. for doors which can weigh up to 100 kg and with opening angles equal to or greater than 100°.
The known hinges also do not allow the housing therein of tubes for the passage of fluids, for example water, from the inside of the refrigerator to its door.
The known hinges also comprise elastic means therein that despite having a good operability if the refrigerator door provides gaskets of magnetic type are not always able to guarantee to exert a force upon the refrigerator door so as to ensure that it remains closed and in contact with the refrigerator body even in the absence of said magnetic gaskets.
Furthermore the elastic means of known hinges while having a good operability in normal use conditions are not able to overcome wear tests involving particularly burdensome cycles of opening/closing of the hinge (e.g. tests involving more than 900,000 cycles of opening and closing).
The known hinges used for large dimension refrigerator doors, for example of the type produced by the company Hettich, are connectable to said doors only by inserting them into appropriate recessed seats, formed in the body of the refrigerator by removing a portion of its insulating material, i.e. compromising in part the refrigerator insulation.